An American Association of Petroleum Geologists convention at
Dallas offered my first chance to visit the famous dinosaur trackways and some
alleged human footprints near Glen Rose, Texas on April 21, 1983. That month's
ASA Newsletter led to a sparkling correspondence with Ronnie Hastings of
Waxahachie. He and Glen Kuban invited me back in 1987 for a full two weeks in
the Paluxy River valley. Beginning on August 21, our expedition covered the
surviving documented sites along with some which had never been reported, local
museums, and available sources of information. We investigated rumors of
anomalous fossils, examined myriad clues to the ancient setting, and allowed the
evidence to shape our conclusions.

The best "mantrack trails" already had been studied
and shown to be plantigrade (metatarsal) trackways of bipedal dinosaurs,
especially at McFall, Taylor and West sites (Godfrey and Cole, 1986; Hastings,
1985, 1986, 1987a&b, 1988; Kuban 1986a&b, 1987a&b ' 1988). Supposed
footprints on the Dinosaur Valley State Park ledge or shelf, including
"eroded brontosaur...... bear" and assorted human examples (Morris,
1980, pp. 155-158; also cited by WilderSmith, Dougherty, and Baugh) were
demonstrated to be erosional and weathering features (Milne and
Schafersman,
1983; Cole and Godfrey, 1985; Godfrey and Cole, 1986; Hastings, 1988;
Kuban,
1988). Similar features at other sites (cited by Dougherty, 1984, as human
footprints and a dog track) had likewise been recognized as inorganic in origin,
prior to our fieldwork. Even so, we reviewed each site and allegation, continued
to map, measure, and photograph.

Tridactyl patterns indicating dinosaur toes (in some cases
also claws) are visible in each theropod trackway of the plantigrade variety
which has been considered a "giant mantrack trail" to correlate with
Genesis 6:4. Though individual tracks may be indistinct, others in the sequence
confirm their origin. Discolorations are evident in a BibleScience Association
poster, available at Somervell County Museum, of a Taylor Trail track
photographed more than a decade ago (also in photographs in Dougherty, 1984 and
Morris, 1980). Some of the Kuban/Hastings cores have been analyzed at
Indiana/Purdue University, found to be more dolomitic within the toe outlines
than outside the track (Farlow, 1987, pp. 26-27; as anticipated by Hastings,
1987a and 1988). This contrast in mineralogy extends to the substrate, ruling
out any suggestion of tampering. I postulated (Hastings
1987a, p. 14) that such selective
dolomitization may reflect greater concentrations of cyanobacteria in the
pools which probably filled the footprints at ancient low tide: the bacteria
inhibit limestone from forming, while their chlorophyll increases
concentration of magnesium ions.

We checked fresh excavations at the McFall and Kerr Sites,
where "mantrack" discoveries continued to be reported after the
Taylor Site's recognition as dinosaurian. Tridactyl patterns exist in the 1987
trails, too. Some supposed footprints are also erosional marks, and the "bauanthropus"
depressions which presumably represent places where a dinosaur appendage
grazed the mud (Hastings, 1988). Again, there were no human prints.

Glen and I found the limestone undisturbed by excavations at
the reported site for Clifford Burdick's "mantracks." I saw one of
these and a "cat track" (Morris, 1980, pp. 2, 122) at Carl Baugh's
Creation Evidences Museum: chisel or centre punch markings were visible, apart
from obvious anatomical errors (Armstrong, 1987). Such forgeries are still used
to solicit funds, and the books which present them as genuine (for example,
Whitcomb and Morris, 1961; Dougherty, 1984) remain in print without any
disclaimers or hints of doubt. A photograph on the cover of Carl Baugh's
"Creation Evidences in Color" booklet, which I obtained from his
museum, shows Thalassinoides (crustacean burrow casts) outlined in ink,
as a human footprint.

The dinosaur trackways are spectacular, worthy of exploration
apart from any search for non-existent "mantracks." Most have been
attributed to Brontosaurus (properly, Apatosaurus) and Tyrannosaurus (in Morris, 1980;
Dougherty, 1984), though neither genus is known from the Lower
Cretaceous Comanchean Series of Texas. Sauropod trackways were most likely left
by a small brachiosaurid known as Astrodon or Pleurocoelus. Theropod
tracks, both digitigrade and plantigrade, could represent several genera but
especially Acrocanthosaurus, alternately called allosaurid, megalosaurid
or spinosaurid (Langston and Perkins, 1983; Farlow, 1987). A rare third type of
track is thought to be from a bipedal ornithopod such as Iguanodon. About 500
dinosaur tracks are visible at the state park, and 120 at Taylor Site alone.

Glen Rose Formation is a sequence of limestones interbedded
with maris and shales, rich in clues to the ancient environment: apparently a
subtropical, and tidal flat and estuary between 100 and 120 million years ago.
Mud cracks indicate that the track-bearine strata used to dry out at low tide
and probably for some longer durations. Algal mats in some beds represent
hypersaline intertidal settings. Freshwater influx was suggested by our
discovery of one Viviparus snail, in marl. The marls between
track-bearing limestones are filled with fossils of mussels, oyster beds,
burrowing clams, and snails; serpulid worm patch-reefs encasing carbonized brace
roots from mangrove-like trees; spheroidal algae, or possibly sponges, called Porocystis.
A thin storm deposit of small clam shells (the Corbula layer)
overlies the main Porocystis and serpulid concentrations. Pycnodont fish
teeth are found in both strata; the pycnodonts probably nipped reefal organisms, crushing calcareous shells in
beaklike jaws laden with teeth.

Most of the fossils are marine. Mud cracks, crustacean
burrows, algal beds, serpulid patch-reefs, and oyster beds in growth position
suggest longterm deposition, militate against flood geology interpretations.
Storms, tides, and localized events account for the exceptional strata which
were rapidly buried. Although John Morris reasoned that closed clam shells
indicated sudden inundation (Morris, 1980, p. 151) these were burrowing clams
already surrounded by mud. His reference to a conglomerate of rounded limestone
pebbles, in the same paragraph, is surely a misreading of the Porocystis
abundance. We traced rumored horse and deer footprints to partly exposed oyster
beds and cross-sections of burrowing clams. Scallop shells and pholads
(rock-boring pelecypods with delicate shells, called "angel wings")
occurred at one outcrop.

Apart from false "mantracks" and the other items
mentioned by Hastings (1988), Baugh's Creation Evidences Museum contains nodules
misinterpreted as human and monkey skulls, dolomitic concentrations in weathered
limestone as an "impacted snake fossil" and countless other oddities
which mislead honest creationists. Calling the Moab skeleton Cretaceous (Hastings,
1988), when the formation it supposedly came from was really
Jurassic, reminded me of the self-defeating advertising for a Glen Rose
restaurant which listed sumptuous buffets, but said "better than that, come
in for coffee with your friends and plan your day." Actually, the skeleton
had been dated at a few hundred years (Hastings, 1985, 1986). Dinosaur bones
excavated upriver, near the county line, are displayed (the ischium is labelled
"femurs," and pubis is designated "ilium" in the coloring
booklet). Baugh's 1987 discoveries, intended to collapse the geologic timescale,
include a supposed Cambrian trilobite and allegedly human incisor: both were
pycnodont or closely related fish
teeth from the McFall Site, marine fossils normally found in the formation (Armstrong, 1987). The guide told me that they would have excavated the skull,
too, but the landowner wouldn't let them; no bones could be found at the tooth
site.

A "human hand print" at Baugh's museum turned
out
to be solution weathering markers, known as karren. A Yshaped
bone was called the forehead horn of a newly discovered dinosaur (Unicornosaurus)
and correlated with the unicorn of Job 39:9 in the King James Version. The
horn supposedly folded back like a jack-knife blade! I confirmed suspicions of
the correct identification at my next salmon supper: this was a neural spine
from a fish large enough for Jonah. Specimens labelled "dinosaur
claws" were teeth from predatory fish.

My "downtime" following an eye injury on August 25
led to a speculative, intuitive hypothesis based on observations. Carnosaur
tracks predominate the site, in contrast to the four percent of skeletons
representing that type of dinosaur; plantigrade tracks are common; the area had
been a tidal flat, and all the recently misinterpreted fossils came from fish:
therefore, I suspect that carnosaurs probably stalked fish in tidal pools,
crouching as they did. The "bauanthropus" marks might even be where prey had struggled. Glen
had perceived the probability of crouching carnosaurs, and written more
cautiously than my independent, visionary assessment (Kuban, 1986a&b).

The day before leaving Texas, I enjoyed a morning at Fossil
Rim Wildlife Ranch, also near Glen Rose. The first African animal to beg for
alfalfa concentrate through the car window was a single-horned addax, one of the
most likely candidates for the unicorn! Sunday's closing hymn, back in Calgary,
almost brought laughter because it referred to going "through the deep
waters," so soon after I had waded up to waist-deep in the Paluxy. Later
reflection led to correlation between what we did and Jeremiah 6:16-we had gone
to the crossroad, sought ancient paths, and walked in them.

Although the allegedly human evidence was weighed and found
wanting, like Beishazzar's reign (Daniel 5:27), the saga will continue because
people are taught that the scenarios are proved in the Bible. They are welcome
to their interpretation. However, unethical promotion methods and false
accusations to the effect that opponents wrote without checking the evidence so
carefully examined, together with confrontationism, are violations of the
biblical commandments. All are practiced in the name of biblical adherence,
Christian apologetics.

Farlow, James O., 1987.
A Guide to Lower Cretaceous Dino8aur Footprints and
Tracksites of the Paluzy River Valley, Somervell County, Texas. (Waco, TX:
South Central Geological Society of America, Baylor University).

Kuban, Glen J., 1987b. "Color
Distinctions and Other Curious Features of
Dinosaur Tracks Near Glen Rose, Texas" in Proceedings of the First
Intenational Symposium on Dinosaur Tracks and Traces (Albuquerque, NM:
1986).